Indexing locality: contemporary urban vernaculars in Belgium and Norway

Aarsaether, Finn; Marzo, Stefania; Nistov, Ingvild; Ceuleers, Evy

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139061896.018

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Cheshire et al, 2011). We have also argued that it has shifted from marking ethnicity and has become enregistered (Agha, 2003; Johnstone, Andrus, & Danielson, 2006) as indexical of a new, local identity (Aarsæther et al, 2015). Survey data and sociolinguistic interviews on self-reported language use suggested that the use of Citélanguage is related to a sense of belonging to the local region of Genk, and, more specifically, that it signals an identification with the local neighborhoods where these youngsters grew up.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…These vernaculars, apart from being diffused among native youngsters (e.g. Cheshire, Kerswill, Fox, & Torgersen, 2011; Rampton, 1995) and stylized in interaction (Jaspers, 2011b; Rampton, 2011) and in the media (Johnson & Milani, 2010), are often enregistered (Agha, 2007, p. 81), that is, “recognized (and regrouped) as belonging to distinct, differentially valorised semiotic registers by a population” (see also Aarsæther, Marzo, Nistov, & Ceuleers, 2015; Madsen, 2011; Møller & Jørgensen, 2011). Despite several issues surrounding the politics of labeling these practices or vernaculars (see e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring the social meaning of contemporary urban vernaculars: Perceptions and attitudes about Citétaal in Flanders

Marzo

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social meaning of a contemporary urban vernacular called Citétaal (Citélanguage). While most studies on the perception of urban vernaculars have applied qualitative discursive methods, we investigate the perception of and attitudes towards Citétaal by combining a qualitative and quantitative approach. In a discursive analysis of online surveys and social media networks, we analyze how this variety is perceived and represented on a collective level, and in comparison to other varieties, such as standard Dutch and regional Limburg Flemish. These insights are used to organize a speaker evaluation experiment ( n=95) in which we verify to what extent the various meanings in the indexical field of Citétaal occur on the individual level of the listener’s mind and how they are structured. We will also measure the listener’s ability to guess the speaker’s ethnic and regional origin. The qualitative data will be further used to interpret the results of the experiment. It will be shown that although social meanings of Citétaal strongly vary within the community, they are clearly regimented by prevailing standard language ideologies. Citétaal is still perceived as a vernacular spoken by foreign speakers, and its social meanings fluctuate between values of low social status and high attractiveness. The opposition (considered as distance) between speaker attractiveness and status is the highest for Citétaal and the lowest for standard Dutch, which suggests that social meanings of standard Dutch are more stable and widely accepted throughout the Flemish community. The conclusions highlight the importance of combining qualitative and quantitative methods when studying perceptions and attitudes in order to provide a fuller understanding of the social meaning of urban vernaculars in the larger community.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the social meaning of contemporary urban vernaculars: Perceptions and attitudes about Citétaal in Flanders

Marzo

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Stijl ("style") is written with <sh> to mark the palatalisation of [s] to [ʃ] in the first syllable position (stijl is pronounced as [ʃteil] instead of [steil]), which is a recurrent feature associated with Citétaal. With the slogan, which became a Facebook page, they drew upon the construction of a new local identity of the city of Genk that this speech style had triggered in recent years (see Aarsaether et al 2015), while explicitly referring to historical and social values (migration, melting pot of languages and cultures) that underlie this identity. The following promotional text was diffused on several social media channels:…”

Section: Excerptmentioning

confidence: 98%

A ‘new’ speech style is born

Svendsen

Marzo

2015

European Journal of Applied Linguistics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A 'new' speech style is bornThe omnipresence of structure and agency in the life of semiotic registers in heterogeneous urban spaces Abstract: The aim of this paper is to contribute to the sociolinguistic discussion about the need for a unified sociological theory, by applying realist social theory (RST) (Carter and Sealey, this volume) to the total linguistic fact (TLF) (Silverstein 1985) or to the semiotics of 'new' speech styles in heterogeneous urban spaces. We explore, with data from Belgium (Flanders, Limburg) on Citétaal and Norway on so-called kebabnorsk, the ways structure and agency are omnipresent in the enregisterment of these semiotic registers. Through media discourse analyses, we investigate essential parts of this enregisterment process, in particular the invention and diffusion of labels and the assignment of stereotypical indexical values to these speech styles and to their alleged speakers. We demonstrate, in line with other studies, that media in interplay with scholars is a key force in the enregisterment of these speech styles. In the analysed media discourse, kebabnorsk and Citétaal are constructed as a 'mixed language', as a countable and uniform entity, the use of which inevitably results in unemployment. The alleged language users are constructed as a homogeneous group, namely 'young people with migrant backgrounds'. It is shown that social structure, including asymmetric power relations and language hegemonies, are omnipresent in the valorisation of these registers and that media discourses rely on language ideologies of unity and purity, ideologies central to a monolingual orientation. We advocate a translingual orientation towards language and communication in which communication transcends languages and involves negotiation of mobile resources. This orientation captures the ontology of language and communication and has, as such, the potential to empower the language users' individual agencies. Bente A. Svendsen: Professor of Norwegian as a second language and Scandinavian linguistics and the Deputy Director of MultiLing Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, MOUTONBrought to you by | Harvard University Authenticated Download Date | 6/29/15 10:28 AM grijke schakel vormt in het enregisterment van de deze omgangsvormen. Zo blijkt dat kebabnorsk en Citétaal worden geconstrueerd als 'mengtalen', als telbare en uniforme entiteiten, waarvan het gebruik onvermijdelijk leidt tot werkloosheid. De vermeende gebruikers van deze registers worden ook beschouwd als een specifieke en homogene groep, namelijk de 'jongeren met een migratie-achtergrond'. We tonen aan dat de sociale structuur, waaronder asymmetrische machtsverhoudingen en taalhegemonieën, fundamenteel is in de valorisatie van deze taalregisters en dat het media discours gebaseerd is op taalideologieën van eenheid en zuiverheid, die typerend zijn voor een monolinguale visie op taal. Ten slotte pleiten we voor een translinguale visie die de ontologie van taal en communicatie dekt en meer aandacht schenkt aan de agency...

show abstract

“…Aarsæther, Marzo, Nistov, and Ceuleers () compared Oslo to Genk (Belgium) where they found that UYSS's are used by young people with and without an immigrant background. The vernacular spoken in Genk and generally referred to as Citétaal (City language; Marzo & Ceuleers, ) is spoken by young people, who use it as a speech style in alternation with a common colloquial Flemish variety.…”

Section: Other Parts Of Europementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vernacular spoken in Genk and generally referred to as Citétaal (City language; Marzo & Ceuleers, ) is spoken by young people, who use it as a speech style in alternation with a common colloquial Flemish variety. The authors prefer to refer to the vernacular as “representations of varieties,” rather than varieties or a variety by itself (Aarsæther et al, , p. 250). In their article, they focus on the dynamics of social meaning indexed by the use of Citétaal, among other things.…”

Section: Other Parts Of Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Language and identity practices among multilingual Western European youths

Nortier

2018

Language and Linguist. Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the 1980s, an increasing number of studies on youth languages in Europe has appeared. In this paper, a selection of the literature on linguistic practices and identity work by young people in multilingual and multiethnic urban areas in Western Europe is reviewed and discussed. Practices in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are focused on. From a bird's eye view, the literature on linguistic practices of urban youth in other West‐ and South‐European countries is reviewed as well. After a sketch of the context in which the first studies on multilingual and multiethnic youth languages appeared, research on youth languages in the five focus countries is presented, followed by a comparison of linguistic characteristics. Specific features from the levels of grammar, lexicon, and pronunciation are used to index social belonging and identity.

show abstract

Indexing locality: contemporary urban vernaculars in Belgium and Norway

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Exploring the social meaning of contemporary urban vernaculars: Perceptions and attitudes about Citétaal in Flanders

Exploring the social meaning of contemporary urban vernaculars: Perceptions and attitudes about Citétaal in Flanders

A ‘new’ speech style is born

Language and identity practices among multilingual Western European youths

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About